Forage legumes in grass pastures in tropical Brazil and likely impacts on greenhouse gas emissions: A review

Abstract

Tropical forage legumes were first used on a wide scale, starting well before the 1950s in the northeasterly Australian state of Queensland (Shaw, 1961). The famous "Townsville Stylo" (Stylosanthes humilis Kunth) was introduced into thousands of ha of pastures in Queensland and made an important contribution to extensive beef production in northern Australia (Gardener, McCaskill, & McIvor, 1993; Humphreys, 1967). Many Brazilian students working on pastures and agronomy studied in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s and brought back the idea of using Stylosanthes spp. in Brazilian pastures. The Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Cali, Colombia, starting in the 1970s, accumulated a large collection of forage legumes, listed today as 21,083 tropical legume accessions, including over 4,000 of the genus Stylosanthes alone (CIAT, 2019). A considerable effort was made to work with this germplasm in Brazil, mainly by Embrapa and CEPLAC. The first Stylosanthes materials tested were highly sensitive to the fungal disease anthracnose and resistant accessions had to be selected. In Brazil, two cultivars of Stylosanthes were released in 1983, Pioneiro and Bandeirantes, and while in trials their performance was satisfactory (Sousa, Andrade, & Thomas, 1983a, 1983b) there was

Risk Reduction and Productivity Increase Through Integrating Arachis pintoi in Cattle Production Systems in the Colombian Orinoquía

“…These results (i.e., the increased milk productivity by 52% and the related increased income from milk sales by 58%) are consistent with (and even surpass the results of) different studies that have evaluated the potential of Arachis pintoi accessions (mainly CIAT 17434) in integrated grass-legume systems for livestock production in the tropics. These studies highlight, in comparison with monoculture pastures, improvements in both forage quantity and quality, a strong compatibility with aggressive Brachiaria species, as well as higher meat and milk production levels and stocking rate (Peters et al, 2011;Crestani et al, 2013;Pereira et al, 2019;Boddey et al, 2020;Villegas et al, 2020). Other studies show average increases in milk production of 31% in Colombia (Rivas and Holmann, 2000), 7 and 11.4% in Costa Rica (Peters et al, 2001;Romero and González, 2004), and 20% in Peru (Lara and Reategui, 2004).…”

Editorial—Annual and perennial forage legumes in dryland pasture systems

“…There is also an increased interest in the role of legumes in tropical environments, e.g., Boddey et al. (2020). This special issue expands and updates the discussion on the role of legumes in farming systems with an emphasis on lower rainfall environments.…”

Table_1.DOCX

“…Overgrazing in pasture and rangelands has resulted in severe soil degradation through compaction and erosion (Martinez and Zinck, 2004), especially in the drylands, with SOC losses creating a large carbon deficit in soils globally (Sanderman et al, 2017). In addition, livestock production is associated with biodiversity loss and high water use (Alkemade et al, 2013;Heinke et al, 2020) Among the most recognized and studied side effects of livestock production related to environmental damage in the tropical areas are: GHG emissions contributing to global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss, high water use, and land/soil degradation (Martinez and Zinck, 2004;Alkemade et al, 2013;Chirinda et al, 2019;Boddey et al, 2020;Butterbach-Bahl et al, 2020). Widely publicized recent reports, such as EAT-Lancet (Willett et al, 2019), prompted a wave of media outreach arguing that one of the main solutions to the climate change and human health crises, globally, is to eat no or little animal-source foods (Paul et al, 2020a).…”

“…Reduction of the need for commercial feed/supplements/concentrates through higher feed efficiency and quality: Snijders et al, 2011;Lukuyu et al, 2013;Silva et al, 2017 B. Reduction of the need for off-farm manure or chemical fertilizers: Nyambati et al, 2006;Douxchamps et al, 2010Douxchamps et al, , 2014Schultze-Kraft et al, 2018;Boddey et al, 2020 C. Decreased use of chemical weed and pest control: Xuan et al, 2006;Njeru et al, 2020D. Decreased water requirements: Ríos et al, 2006Nefzaoui et al, 2014;Mayer and Cushman, 2019;Rocha Filho et al, 2021…”

“…Improved chemical soil health: Fisher et al, 1994;Schultze-Kraft et al, 2018;Baptistella et al, 2020;Lira et al, 2020;Olaya-Montes et al, 2020;Vazquez et al, 2020B. Improved physical properties: Schultze-Kraft et al, 2018Baptistella et al, 2020;Boddey et al, 2020 C. Increased below-ground biodiversity and biological activity: Byrnes et al, 2017;Boddey et al, 2020;Vazquez et al, 2020…”